Sports
Kafelikov looking to bow out with Davis Cup glory
Russian Yevgeny
Kafelnikov returns a ball to Spain's Alex Corretja during their
second round match 16 October 2002, at the Madrid Tennis Masters
in Madrid.
By Alexander Fedorets
MOSCOW (AFP) - The retirement of Russian tennis icon Yevgeny Kafelnikov, which may come this weekend should his side defeat France in the Davis Cup final, would lower the curtain on a brilliant career that helped put Russian tennis on the map.
A native of the Black Sea resort town of Sochi who turned pro in 1992, Kafelnikov spearheaded the game's post-Soviet revival, the first Russian player to top the ATP rankings in May 1999.
The 28-year-old was also the first Russian to win a Grand Slam title, claiming the French Open in 1996 and the 1999 Australian Open.
And he almost single-handedly led Russia to two Davis Cup finals, which to Kafelnikov's bitter disappointment his side lost at home -- 4-1 to Sweden in 1994, and 3-2 to the United States in 1995.
But the winner of 26 ATP singles titles and more than 23 million dollars in prize money has pointed to the 2000 Olympic gold medal which he won for Russia at the Sydney Games as his most significant achievement so far.
His career will be complete if Russia goes top of the pile in international tennis by winning the Davis Cup in Paris, Kafelnikov said.
Tennis was never a big sport in the Soviet Union, the ruling Communist Party viewing the game as a vulgar amusement of wealthy capitalists that would only tarnish the upstanding moral code of the Soviet people.
The rare successes of Soviet players were never widely publicized, even as every win of the Soviet's mighty ice hockey squad was portrayed as a triumph for the Communist system.
All that changed when the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, with Russia's first democraticly leader Boris Yeltsin proclaiming his passion for the game and introducing tennis courts to the Kremlin.
Tennis quickly evolved into one of the most popular sports among Russian politicians and business barons, many viewing the green courts as a perfect opportunity to hobnob with the Kremlin elite.
Sports clubs and tennis courts have mushroomed across the country since then, bringing not only establishment figures but also crowds of young talents into the game.
The prize fund of the Kremlin Cup, the first professional men's tennis tournament in Russia, rose from 330,000 dollars in its inaugural year of 1990 to 2.24-million dollars this year for the joint men's and women's events.
Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg
is also staging a one-million-dollar ATP tournament, attracting
superstars like Andre Agassi, who headed the event's entry list
this year.
Inevitably, the tennis boom paid off with an infusion of Russian
talent into both the ATP and WTA circuits.
Moscow-born hard-hitter Marat Safin, who turned professional in 1997, and has won 11 ATP titles including the US Open in 2000, is the foremost example of this new breed.
Now, 22, Safin will team up with Kafelnikov in Paris this weekend.
Another Muscovite, the 20-year-old Mikhail Youzhny, who won his first ATP title this season, was also included in the squad.
On the women's side, 2000 Olympics silver medal winner Yelena Dementieva, Tatiana Panova, Anastasia Myskina and Nadia Petrova now play for Russia along with glamour girl Anna Kournikova, still without a tournament win but one of the most recognized faces in the game, thanks to her pinup looks.
Some suggest Russia would have been unable to scale these heights without their tennis godfather Shamil Tarpishchev, who has headed the Russian tennis federation since 1991.